Heroes of a Golden Age: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael...
Even though it’s about the golden age of superhero comics and comic book artists (the ’30s and ’40s) in New York City, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (pronounced [...]
View ArticleA Rom-Com with Asperger’s: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
The cover of The Rosie Project by Australian author Graeme Simsion misled me into thinking it would be too sweetly, quirkily romantic to be interesting, but reviews from bloggers such as Ti at Book [...]
View ArticleWhat to Read after The Goldfinch: The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis...
I’m deep into a severe blogging slump right now, but have to tell you about The Orphans of Race Point by Patry Francis. It’s the book you’re going to want to read this summer – in [...]
View ArticleLiterary Giveaway Blog Hop — June 21-25 @Leeswammes @patryf
Welcome to the Literary Giveaway Blog Hop! The Literary Giveaway Blog Hop is hosted by Judith at Leeswammes Blog. Between now and Wednesday, June 25th, you can hop to over 30 different book blogs, all...
View ArticleDNF: To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
At page 191, I’m giving up on To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris and letting it go to the next person waiting for it at the library. It’s 337 pages long, so I got over half-way through...
View ArticleTwo Weeks with New Yorkers in Mallorca: The Vacationers by Emma Straub
The Vacationers by Emma Straub is the perfect beach read for people who like their escapist reading to take them to a villa in Mallorca on a family vacation with two generations of family, along with a...
View ArticleWeekend Read: The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson (No Spoilers)
With its many references to the Boston area, The Girl with a Clock for a Heart by Peter Swanson has been on my TBR* list since it came out last February, but once I finally opened it and read [...]
View ArticleTrilogy’s End: The Magician’s Land by Lev Grossman @leverus @VikingBooks
If you’ve read The Magicians and The Magician King by Lev Grossman you’ve probably already read The Magician’s Land – the third in the trilogy – because it came out over a month ago. (And if you...
View ArticleShadowy Victorian London: The Quick by Lauren Owen @steeldroppings R.I.P. IX
The bookish cover design and these blurbs from authors I really like lured me into reading The Quick by Lauren Owen – over 500 pages of subtle suspense or passages of normal Victorian life, broken up...
View ArticleTales of Darkness and Dread: High Crime Area by Joyce Carol Oates (Audio)...
Some tread cautiously, fearfully; some walk right in; but all of the characters in the stories by Joyce Carol Oates collected in High Crime Area explore the dark side of themselves and their...
View ArticleClassic Coming of Age Tale: Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon (Audio) @SimonAudio
So, so late with this review! Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon, beautifully narrated by George Newbern, which I listened to months ago during a fall horror binge, was released in October. Blame it on the...
View ArticlePlease Ignore the Cover: Deutschland by Martin Wagner @CarnelianValley
The cover image of Deutschland by Martin Wagner may misleadingly make you think of a Cujo-like horror novel, but although a scary dog on a chain does appear about a third of the way in, Deutschland is...
View ArticleThe Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (Audio)
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, a novel by Gabrielle Zevin, is about a grieving widower named A.J. – old before his time at not even 40 – whose lonely life as a judgmental, cantankerous bookseller on...
View ArticleMusing on Good and Bad Reviews of The Half Brother by Holly LeCraw
THIS POST IS SPOILER-FREE! Reviews of the boarding school novel The Half Brother by Holly LeCraw range widely from “wonderful” to “worst book I’ve ever read”. (Disclosure: I reviewed this book for...
View ArticleYouthful Accident or Racial Incident: Upper West Side Story by Susan Pashman
In Upper West Side Story, a first novel by philosophy professor and former attorney Susan Pashman, two families in Manhattan are pitted against each other after a tragic accident (possibly a crime)...
View ArticlePitch-Perfect Wry Charm: All Together Now by Gill Hornby
Some novels put the quirky charm front and center and try to win the reader over too quickly, but Gill Hornby’s All Together Now plays it cool in that stiff-upper-lip, British, deadpan way. The author...
View ArticleDeserves All the Big Praise It’s Getting: A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
I’ve been very selfish with my library copy of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, and so I need to bring it back today. A Little Life is my #1 favorite book so far this year, and I had so many pages...
View ArticleFirst Book of 2016 with Sheila @bookjourney & Karen @BookerTalk #readinto16
I didn’t get many books for Christmas, but got a nice stack of them for my birthday in October. I read My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante on the flight back from Rome in October, and loved it, so it...
View ArticleSurreal Comedy of Manners: Two Serious Ladies by Jane Bowles
Imagine two women of independent means – one unmarried, one married – going through the motions, more or less, of belonging to conventional (bourgeois) society and doing what’s expected of them, until...
View ArticleShort and Strout: My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout (no spoilers)
My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout is a very short novel – just over 200 pages – but I’ve spent a disproportionately long time thinking about it before reviewing it! When I first finished...
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